Holiday Budgeting

The Holidays will be here before you know it.  It is almost like getting ready for a marathon!  So prepare just like you are going to do a marathon.  Marathons require preparation, practice and strategy.  Your preparation is determining how much you will spend and creating your gift list.  Retailers use sales and discounts to promote their products by the end of October.  How do you get out ahead of the season?  Plan! That is the preparation for this season.  Make your gift list; find out where you can get these items at the lowest price.  Should you take a different approach to gift giving?  Some families, particularly large ones decide to limit either the amount to spend or exchange names.  Rather than giving to all, limit the number of gifts through a gift exchange.  This is a personal choice!  There is enough time before the holidays to research the lowest price.  The Internet is an excellent way to do that research.  There are several shopping bots that will make that research easy and quickly.  Two of them are www.shopzilla.com or www.google.com/shopping.  This allows you to compare prices on-line and with brick and mortar retailers.  Before you can research, you should know what you want to buy.

What is your strategy?  Wait till right before the holidays and use the sales to get your lowest price?  Plan early, take advantage of the Internet and find the lowest price.  In many instances Internet purchases receive free shipping and no sales tax.  That in itself is a discount.  The practice portion is testing the water, watching sales taking advantage of the shopping bots.  Using all these techniques help you to save money.  Stick to your budget will control your expenses more than anything.  Each year you will learn to be better at this, if you practice these techniques.  If you like this article, please subscribe.

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